Johan Turi

At its heart the text aims to draw outsiders' attention to the intrinsic value of Sami culture. In 1904, he met the art student Emilie Demant Hatt on a train in northern Scandinavia. Through an interpreter, he told her he wanted to write a book about Lapps, while she told him she wanted to be a nomad. Three years later, having learned the Sami language, Demant-Hatt returned to northern Scandinavia and lived with Turi's family. In 1908, Turi and Demant-Hatt lived in a mountain cabin where she assisted him with his manuscript. Turi died in Jukkasjärvi. The book has been translated into some ten languages, including Swedish, Danish, Finnish, English, Norwegian, German, French, Italian, Hungarian and Japanese. In 2011, Nordic Studies Press published an English edition of Turi's An Account of the Sami, translated by folklorist and professor of Scandinavian Studies Thomas A. In 2025, Muitalus sámiid birra became part of the Swedish Culture Canon (Kulturkanon); The committee that decided the content of the canon, was led by Lars Trägårdh.

• Name — Johan Turi • Born — 12 March 1854 • Birthplace — Kautokeino, Norway • Place of death — Jukkasjärvi, Sweden • Occupation — Sami author, reindeer herder

• 1910 – Muitalus sámiid birra (Turi's book of Lappland) • 1920 – Sámi deavsttat (Texts in Sami) • 1931 – Duoddaris (From the Mountain)